UNCTAD works within the framework of the entire United Nations system to follow up processes related to the Review of the MDGs and the preparations for the post-2015 United Nations development agenda. This entails collaboration and coordination with other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes as well as amongst different divisions and branches of the UNCTAD secretariat.

The work of UNCTAD takes place at three levels:

At the intergovernmental level (General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Commission on Sustainable Development/high-level political forum, governing bodies of organizations of the United Nations system).

At the United Nations system inter-agency level (including the Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs plus, the Task Team and issue-driven networks/platforms).

At the level of all people who look to their leaders to identify and act on the major challenges ahead. (Through civil society organizations, the private sector and academia).

UNCTAD seeks to contribute to the definition of a single and comprehensive post-2015 United Nations development agenda with sustainable development at its core.

​In its latest Policy Brief, UNCTAD lays out four elements of a more ambitious and flexible policy approach required for developing countries to spur growth and attain the goals of a post-2015 development agenda.

UNCTAD's Least Developed Countries Report 2014 says that the international community must learn from the failure of most of the poorest countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) despite registering strong economic growth - a phenomenon the Report dubs the "LDC paradox".

In the design of the post-2015 agenda, we need to know better what the conditions, policy mixes and best practices are to make use of trade as a means for sustainable development

.. a new set of development goals will be meaningless without complimentary progress on financing. The implementation and scaling up of financing for development should therefore be an integral part of this debate, as it is a key catalyst for development progress post-2015.